Happy Thanksgiving

We miss you Lilly and we're thankful for every moment we spent with you.

Our flower

We laid Lillian's remains to rest today under a setting sun and crisp, blue sky in the garden at Christ Episcopal Church in Bradenton. It is a beautiful little oasis in this frenetic world. Our little flower joins roses, hibiscus and birds of paradise already in bloom. St. Francis (a soothing water fountain/statue) keeps watch over it all. It's comforting to know she's in such a wonderful place. She'll forever hear the choir singing, the church bells ringing and the sounds of the children at the Episcopal school just next door. We'll also get to visit her every Sunday after church.

Now she's in God's arms, where she will be watched over and, in turn, watch over us.

We love you, Lilly Rose. May God bless your precious, little soul.

Little Lilly Rose

We're still in such shock and I think we will be for a very long time. But in a lot of ways we're very lucky to have each other and the love and support of all of our friends, family and our church.

Lilly Rose lived exactly 40 weeks until her due date. In the end, her umbilical cord got tangled around her little neck as she was making her final move to get ready for her grand entrance. It was a terrible and horrible accident and one from which we will never recover.

At 2:30 p.m. Thursday we were at the doctor for our weekly visit and heard her strong little heart beat. The doctor reassured us that she was a perfect size and that she would be born within the week. Sadly, less than 12 hours later she was gone. Jennifer noticed that she wasn't kicking at her usual times and we went into the hospital to check things out, knowing for sure that we were overreacting with first-time parent jitters. We weren't. By the time we got to the hospital, she was already gone.

Jennifer had to go through the long, heartbreaking process of birthing a baby that we knew was already gone into God's arms. She was in labor for 26 hours and had a difficult delivery. But in the end, we were able to hold our beautiful baby girl for awhile. She was 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. She had Brent's lips and Jennifer's nose and she was already loved by so many people.

We've been overwhelmed by the love that has surrounded us during this time. And we're more grateful than you'll ever know. We're slowly starting the healing process. For Jennifer that is physical as well as emotional, but we're doing it together and with God's help, the way we do everything.

Right now, we're concentrating on Lilly Rose's memorial service tomorrow. After that, we'll leave town for awhile to try to heal away from this place that feels so empty without her little cries. We'll continue to stay in contact, but we need to be away from here for awhile.

Lillian Rose Conklin

With broken hearts, we announce the birth and death of our beautiful daughter, Lillian Rose Conklin, on Nov. 15. She was much loved during her short time here with us.

A memorial service will be held at noon Wednesday, Nov. 19, in the chapel at Christ Episcopal Church, 4030 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton, FL.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Lillian’s name to Christ Episcopal Church.

Due date number 2

Well today was the day the doctor thought the baby was due. But sadly, I'm still at 1 cm so she probably won't make her debut today.

At this point, Brent and I are really hoping for Monday 11/17, its the anniversary of our first date and seems poetic somehow. But, frankly, I'll just be happy to see her whenever she gets here. The doctor says she won't let me go more than a week, so one way or the other, there will be a baby by the end of next week. Despite that, the doctor says there is no worry about her size, she's thinks she's in the 7 pound range.

In the last day or two she's really started to wear me out. I can't explain it, but all of a sudden I'm exhausted and she seems so heavy. I know it would be best for me to be out walking to encourage her to come, but frankly I'm just too tired. So, I'm finally taking everyone's advice and resting. Although, yes, I'm also still trying to get things done between naps.

My goal for today is to go buy some groceries, we're pretty much out of food, which will be really inconvenient if she does come. Since I doubt we'll have time to buy groceries after she's here. Of course, I've been avoiding the grocery store because I'm tired of buying the kinds of food I can eat with my gestational diabetes. I guess I was hoping if I could put it off she'd come and then I could eat whatever I want. I'm really craving some carbs, mmmm mashed potatoes.

It's 11-11

Well, we're smack in the middle of "our" due date (11-9) and the doc's due date (11-13).

Our three-day weekend certainly flew by. Back to work for Brent today :(

We saw a movie Monday night, The Duchess with Keira Knightley. We continued to tie up loose ends the rest of the weekend (yard work, house cleaning, laundry, etc.) with a good bit of relaxing. Monday afternoon included some viewing of a few baby reality shows on Discovery Health.

Some other highlights of the weekend:

* We bought the baby a hamper.
* Herald got a bath.
* We gave Dreamfield's low-carb pasta a try (pretty good actually).
* We picked up some petunia's, and tomato, basil, eggplant, pepper, cilantro and sage plants at Lowes. Hopefully the sage will be bountiful enough come Thanksgiving to use with our turkey recipe.
* We played a mean game of Skip-bo after getting home from the movie.

More room decor: The wall above the crib

Halloween costume

Maternity leave and dates

Well, today was Jennifer's last day of work. And, it was a long day at that.

We started with our usual tests at the hospital at noon and then headed straight into the east office to do some training before Jennifer becomes unavailable for the next three months. We just got home from work at about 1 a.m. but Jennifer is feeling fine. She tied up all the loose ends she could think of and shut up her office.

Now, its just a waiting game. So here are the dates that Brent likes for the baby's birthday. (And, yes, some of them have already passed.)

11/1 - For symmetry reasons
11/3 - Because its 1-1-3 just like Brent's b-day (1/13)
11/4 - For historic importance
11/5 - Because she would share her birthday with her godmother
11/7 - It rhymes and its 7-11 backward (nobody said that they were great reasons)
11/9 - Because its our due date
11/13- Again because its close to Brent's b-day
11/17- Anniversary of our first date

So baby has lots of days to chose from. Of course, Jennifer is just hoping for soon so she won't be bored on maternity leave. She doesn't do too well with nothing to do and she can't imagine having time off with no plans. so she's starting to get antsy.

Almost there

We're at the point now where every day could be THE day. We're as ready as we could be, nesting more along the way (i.e. cleaning the garage, weeding, sifting through old magazines, etc.)

We visited the Outlets today. The highlight was Carter's. It's amazing how cute all those little clothes are! We got adorable outfits for Thanksgiving and Christmas, the latter with little reindeer feet!

Jennifer continues her twice-a-week visits to the hospital for non-stress tests and ultrasound. Our last trip (Friday) was nearly a five-hour affair. Baby's non-stress test wasn't to the nurse and doc's liking (she was moving around too much, making for insufficient readings).

We were talking this week about how FAST the summer went. Seems like yesterday we were celebrating Jen's birthday in May with friends in Las Vegas.